Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Child labor laws during the industrial era
Effects of child labor
Child labor laws during the industrial era
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Child labor laws during the industrial era
Child Workforce helps struggling parents with paying bills and earning a little extra cash for food or needs to survive. Child labor is a good thing because it helps families that need the money to get out of their debt and need it for everyday life.
Children have been known for helping their parents by doing chores, small favors and in an out house work. Children work similar like parents and get paid by wages and by the hour, some people pay minimum wage and others pay what the job is really worth. In Pennsylvania children were allowed to work in factories from the ages of 8 and older. In the 18th century factories depended on children to show up and work everyday. Families moved to rural areas in the north to farms to look for new industrialized places and made a living. The poor families had to find a good job to support themselves with their family. Factory owners loved child labor because it was cheap and they could support their ideas by saying it was good for the country/state and the economy. Children labor was very useful, because they could fit into smaller areas that the average human could not fit in. The children were used to fix small problems in the machines that could become into a bigger problem, because the grown man's hand could not fit into the smaller areas children were very useful to the factory owners. the factory owners also found it way easier to get them to work easier and to manage and control there feeling to get more work out of them. Owners and parents could send them away for jobs and trade them for older or younger so they could earn more money and make a better living for each other.
So many families had to depend on the kids to go out, work, and make the money for the fam...
... middle of paper ...
... more and more educated when it came to work, and as they grew up they were better at working and knew the rules of what to do and not to do. “Federal and State child labor laws governing agricultural employment reflect this belief they are much less restrictive than those applied to other industries children working on farms owned or operated by a parent are completely exempt from Federal agricultural child labor provisions, and other teenage farm workers are permitted to perform hazardous jobs at younger ages than are their counterparts who work in other industries.” (Child Labor Laws and Enforcement). “From the early 1800's, children were an integral part of the textile industry's work force. In the Manayunk district of Philadelphia, children as young as seven assisted in the spinning and weaving of cotton and woolen goods.” (Kenneth, Wolensky and Judith, Rich)
The childhood of the past has changed through many eras of time. The labor work of children is not needed in a great deal no more. The 1800s was a time of labor for children. Families would have more children than now, because without a child many families could not survive. Children were needed to bring home money and feed the family. The girls were used to do the chores around the house, while the boys were used to do outside work, like cut wood. Children were influenced to do labor. They would not believe in an education, both rural and urban children. Through the industrialization children started working in family farms or in small workshops. Boys and girls would find work at mines or large factories. Children were seen as the important economic survivals to their families. By the 1890s, Canada ...
As industry grew in the period following the Civil War, children, often as puerile as 10 years old but sometimes much younger, labored. They worked not only in industrial settings but additionally in retail stores, on the streets, on farms, and in home-predicated industries. This article discusses the utilization of child labor in the Amalgamated States, concentrating on the period after the Civil War through the elevate of the child labor reform kinetics. These are kids who are as adolescent as 6 years old and are being coerced to fight against others. Albeit children had been auxiliaries and apprentices throughout most of human history, child labor reached incipient extremes during the Industrial Revolution. Children often worked long hours in hazardous factory conditions for very little mazuma. Children were utilizable as laborers because their size sanctioned them to move in minute spaces in factories or mines where adults couldn’t fit, children were more facile to manage and control and perhaps most importantly, children could be paid less than adults. Children are working at puerile ages endeavoring to fortify their family with the little pay that they are fortuitous to get. Children who are in economic child labor are less liable to be in school. Of the total children aged 5 to 14 years in economic child labor, about 15 percent were not in school. Child labor is generally defined as
The labor conditions that children faced were very demanding for a human being from such a small age. For example “In the Manayunk district of Philadelphia, children as young as seven assisted in spinning and weaving of cotton and woolen goods” (Wolensky 2). The children working in the factories had their childhood freedom taken away from them. “In 1830 in a sample of 43 Manchester mills, 22.3% of the workforce was under 14 and 32.4% under 16” (Cunningham 412). This means that about 50% of the workforce in the mills were made up of children under the age of 16 and in today in the United States, a person cannot work until the age of 16. “And it is a hard thing for small children to be confined in a tight close room all day long. It affects their growth, makes them pale and sickly” (Nason). The time these children spent in the factories prevented them from spending time with their neighbors, friends, and family. The fact that young children had to work in these textile mills, created changes to American culture on how childhood years are supposed to be spent.
Most children who worked; suffered health related issues. “Many of the industries that employ large numbers of young workers in the United States have higher-than-average injury rates for workers of all ages,
These comforts and conveniences included better and more developed homes, cheaper clothes, more tools and utensils to work with, and faster and cheaper travel. One of the most important concerns of this time period is the effect of child labor. Document 7 states: Large machines and rising demand for products quickly led to the growth of the factory system. The building of these factories led to the hiring of massive numbers of child workers, the youngest at 11 to 12 years old.
Many businesses and factories hired children because they were easier to exploit; they could be paid less for more work in dangerous conditions. Plus, their small size made many children idea for working with small parts or fitting into small spaces. Children as young as four could be found working in factories, though most were between eight and twelve. Despite the economic gains made by the business that employed them, many children suffered in the workplace. The industrial setting caused many health problems for the children that, if they lived long enough, they would carry with them for the rest of their lives. Children were also more likely to face accidents in the workplace, often caused by fatigue, and many were seriously injured or killed. Despite efforts by reformers to regulate child labor, it wasn’t until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that children under 14 were prohibited from
England was a society dominated by children. During the reign of Queen Victoria one out of three of her servants were under the age of fifteen. Child labor was a prominent issue, because there were no systems to ensure the safety of children. During the start of the industrial revolution, there was a “high demand” for labor (Robson 53). Many families moved from rural areas to new, industrialized cities. After a while things weren’t looking as “promising” as they did before (Boone 23). In order to maintain, families had to put almost all of their family members to work. This led to a rise in the number of child labor. Children were “mistreated, underpayed and overworked” (Kincaid 30). Using children to do all of the hard work, the mining companies believed, was the most sensible and efficient way to get the job done. Because the children were a lot smaller, it was easy for them to “maneuver through tight spaces” and on top of that the children demanded little or no pay at all(Boone 43 ). These wages were enough to persuade companies to use children for all sorts of dangerous jobs such as coal mining and chimney sweeps. Children were called to do many other “horrible” jobs, jobs that adults in this era could not bear, just so long as the bills were paid (Robson 18). The working conditions and treatment of young children during this era was horrible and a lot was done to put an end to it.
Factories were utilizing children to do the hard work. They employed children as young as five or six to work as many as twenty hours a day. According to Document C, children worked in factories to build up muscles and having good intellect in working rather than getting an education. They became a different person rather than conventional children. There were additionally health issues due to child labor: rapid skeletal growth, greater risk of hearing loss, higher chemical absorption rates, and developing ability to assess risks. Progressive Era reformers believed that child labor was detrimental to children and to society. They believed that children should be protected from harmful environments, so they would become healthy and productive adults. In 1912, Congress created the Children’s Bureau to benefit children. The Keating-Owen Act was passed in 1916 to freed children from child labor only in industries that engaged in interstate commerce. However, it was declared unconstitutional sinc...
... this time is self-explanatory, the cost of labor had gone up along with the prices of everything else and child labor was significantly cheap (3-4). Children were sent into fields for twelve to thirteen hours a day picking fruits, cotton and tobacco. Some children delivered the newspaper on bike which is still a common job, only children back then did it hours on end tirelessly. Although the industrial revolution was almost 200 years ago (1820-1870) the influence it had on America is significant; imagine if children would have stayed in school during that time rather than going out and working extensive hours in field or factories. Do you think if children were never exposed to harsh working environments then, that today, child labor would be a problem? Many think our ancestors are to blame and others say children have been working since the days of the Egyptians.
According to the article “A History of Child Labor” reviewed by Milton Fried, a child could work as long as six days a week for up to 18 hours a day, and only make a dollar a week. Child labor was nothing but cheap labor. The big companies loved cheap labor because then they could make an item for not very much money, and make a huge profit margin. Fried continues to state how cheap the labor was, “One glass factory in Massachusetts was fenced with barbed wire ‘to keep the young imps inside.’ These were boys under 12 who carried loads of hot glass all night for a wage of 40 cents to $1.10 per night.” Unlike, children today who are in bed sleeping by 8 pm each night, these children had to stay up all night working to make just enough income for their families. Sadly, the children had no choice but to work for very little pay. Their mothers and fathers made so little money in the factory system that they couldn’t afford to let their children enjoy their childhood: “Other working children were indentured—their parents sold their labor to the mill owner for a period of years. Others lived with their families and worked for wages as adults did, for long hours and under hard conditions” (Cleland). The child had no other choice, but to work for these big
The kids under the age of fourteen were sent to go assist with the textile workers. They then would beat and verbally abuse the child. And if children would show up late, they would be weighted. Weighted means to put a very heavy weight on the child's back and have them walk up and down the factory aisles for hours, so other children can learn from it. This then resulted in back and neck injuries. (“Child Labor in Factories”) While this all seems really cruel, there were many positives that came out of child labor. Children were still able to contribute to their families. Money was a big struggle, and it had a major impact for poor families. Children were also getting a wide range of opportunities and work experiences for the future ahead. Although it might not be the best way to get experience, they were still helping out there families and showing respect towards them. This shows that during the Industrial Revolution, children were used harshly for labor, and the positives and negatives out of
Child Labor. The 1890 census showed that more than one million children, ages ten to fifteen, were working in America. By 1910, that number increased to two million (Davis). Children as young as five could be found in glass making factories, canneries and home industries. Their workday could be as long as eighteen hours and would only get paid a fraction of what an adult would. Yetta Adelman, a Polish garment worker said “I was twelve years old but I wasn’t. Compared to a child [born] here in the United States, I was twenty (McGerr 18).”
Child labor has been around for hundreds of years. “Children of poor and working-class families had worked for centuries before industrialization” (Tuttle 1). Before children were needed in factories they worked on family farms tending the fields or animals, as time went on families moved from farms to the cities where children were still required to work. Children worked for numerous reasons some were that their parents couldn’t work so the responsibilities were passed to the children; others included the simple need for more money to feed the entire family. Large businesses welcomed the increasing number of child workers, for the business it meant cheap labor and cheap laborers that could be replaced easily. The exact number of child workers is unknown and has been estimated as stated in multiple articles such as this, “By 1900 over two million children, mostly immigrant children under the age of sixteen, were employed” (Wagner 1). Parents wanted their children to work as soon as possible so they could get as much income as possible, parents often did illegal things to get their children to work, “Boy’s parents often presented a fake birth certificate with an altered date o...
Factory and mine owners exploited the situation by offering families a means to make more money, by putting their children to work. Industry profited from this arrangement by saving money, since child labor was more “cost effective”. According to one historian, Clark Nardinelli, “in 1835 56,000 children under the age of thirteen were working in textile factories alone. By 1874, the number of child laborers in the market hit its peak with over 122,000 children between the ages of 10 and thirteen working in textile factories (4).” ... ...
If a child has a part-time job, they can learn the value of money. So I believe that the issue of child labour is not simple. As Unicef’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report argued, children’s work needs to be seen as having two extremes. On one hand, there is the destructive or exploitative work and, on the other hand, there is beneficial work - promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest. ‘And between these two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect a child’s development.’